Household cleaning products scare me. CAUTION! KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN!
Don't inhale! Don't ingest! Don't look at product with eyes open! They come with fancy colors, nice smells, and promises to make my life Easier! Cleaner! Healthier! And Spotless!! But those warnings... what do do?
For a long time I had known that some people (years ago I would have called them environmental weirdos) who made their own cleaning products. But would my house actually get clean? Would it smell like vinegar? How would I sanitize? I was addicted to the promises of commercial cleaners, and seriously doubted that I would ever make the move over
to the other side, a side where I make my own cleaning products.
Then along comes my friend. I'll call her X. (You like that
Xan? X? Get it??) X amassed all of the ingredients needed to make cleaning products and offered to help get me started. She shared her essential oils (necessary for scents and disinfecting), good quality
castile soap, and her recipes. X is the homemade cleaning products queen. I've used them for well over a month now, and you know what? They work! I use an all-purpose spray, a disinfectant spray, glass cleaner, disinfectant, and even a toilet bowl cleaner. They're made out of things such as washing soda, baking soda,
castile soap, tree tea oil, borax, water and vinegar.
My all-purpose cleaner cleaned the walls so well that one of my stepsons suggested I sell it as competition for those Magic Eraser things. Now that's a
complement!
Making your own cleaning products is fairly easy. Lots of the stuff you need you probably already have, and the other things you can find easily at a grocery store or natural foods store. There's books on how to do it, and websites with recipes. This website is where I got started:
http://www.organizedhome.com/pantry-recipes-homemade-cleaning-productsAnother household cleaning product that concerns me is automatic dishwasher detergent. When you run your dishwasher with those powerful powders, liquids, or tablets, chemicals actually cling to the dishes. Automatic dishwashing degergetnt contains chlorine and phosphates, which are not things I want around what I'm eating. Today, I put one tablespoon of baking soda and one tablespoon of borax in my dishwasher, and filled the rinse aid compartment with vinegar. Much to my surprise, it got the dishes very clean. The dishwasher itself was cleaner than ever before, so much so that my husband even commented on it.
There's so much to love about natural cleaning. I know that if my daughter is in the room, she won't be breathing toxic particles into her lungs. I don't worry about the boys when the clean the bathrooms (yes, they clean bathrooms, and clean them very well). My products don't harm the environment when I rinse them down the sink. And best of all, they clean as well, if not better, that the commercial products out there. And they cost so much less!
It's so easy being green! I like that I can ask the boys to decide on a scent for their bathroom cleaner. Cleaning bathrooms is so much more fun when you get to decide what scent to use. They're begging me now for more chores that involve cleaning products. I had to say, "no, dear, you just cleaned the toilet two hours ago. You can't do it again". Well, maybe not. Or maybe I just haven't found the right scents. I wonder if chocolate comes as an essential oil...
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